At least six people died and dozens were injured after a major apartment fire broke out Wednesday morning in the Belgian port city of Antwerp.
Local police and fire services said Antwerp Fire Zone was called at 09:53 to a blaze in a Left Bank apartment block housing about 200 residents.
All residents of the affected building have been evacuated, with sixty people from an adjacent block also moved and sheltered at a residential care center across the street.
Though the blaze has been extinguished, firefighters continue searching inside the building for possible victims.
"It is an incredibly sad day for our city. This is something that happens very rarely in Antwerp. This is definitely the biggest fire in [terms of] the human lives that were lost in recent history," said Els van Doesburg, Acting Mayor of Antwerp.
Authorities have since activated a medical intervention plan. Fire services urged people to avoid the area and advised residents affected by smoke to keep doors and windows closed and, if necessary, switch off ventilation systems.
Police confirmed the blaze began on the ground floor, though the cause remains unclear.
Antwerp apartment fire kills six, injures dozens
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged governments worldwide to strengthen artificial intelligence (AI) governance, warning that without shared rules, governments and people will have less say in the outcome.
Speaking at a press conference at UN headquarters in New York, Guterres welcomed the release of the first assessment report from the UN Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence.The 40-member group of experts from around the world was established months ago as the first global, fully independent scientific body dedicated to bridging AI knowledge gaps and assessing its real-world impact on economies and societies.
The preliminary report, released earlier on Wednesday and made available to governments and the public, outlines both the promise and perils of the technology. At the same time, the panel remained clear-eyed about the harms AI could cause, said the UN head.
If properly harnessed, Guterres said, AI can become the most powerful engine for development, accelerating global progress in health, hunger eradication, education and climate action.
The UN chief called on governments to act promptly to step up AI rules.
"The more AI advances without shared rules, the less say governments and people will have in the outcome. So my message to governments is simple: Do not wait," he said.
Guterres said the report is the first in an ongoing effort, as the scientific panel will continue its work as AI evolves.
The inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance is set to take place next week in Geneva, where the international community will begin translating scientific evidence into collective action and bring every nation to the same table, he said.
Guterres said he would soon put forward proposals to help countries build capacity to fully address AI developments and share in the benefits.
As for whether international cooperation can keep pace with the speed of technological changes, Guterres said the answer has been given in the newly released report.
"The science is here. We can no longer say we did not know. What we do with it is now up to all of us," he said.
UN chief calls for stronger global AI rules
